Malaysian students in Adelaide have been warned off going to hear Malaysian politician Anwar Ibrahim during the Adelaide Festival of Ideas on Saturday.

An email sent on Monday to 90 Malaysian students in Adelaide warns “stern action” would be taken against them if they attended.

Anwar Ibrahim, who is due to fly in to Adelaide on Friday morning is world famous as a reforming politician in Malaysia, where he has been harassed and jailed on successive charges of homosexuality and sodomy, which he denies.

He is Leader of the Opposition in Malaysia and was invited to the Festival of Ideas to speak on Dissent and Democracy.

The email is addressed to JPA scholars, those who have received scholarships to study here funded by Malaysia’s Public Service Department.

The email is signed by Shahrezan MD Sheriff, student adviser at the Public Service Department, and advises students not to attend the meeting.

It reads: “You are smarter to think and focus on what matters rather than joining this activity that could make your hardship in maintaining good grades and earning the scholarship goes down the drain (sic).”

While the email’s authorship has not been confirmed and Shahrezan MD Sheriff did not return calls to the JPA office at the Malaysian Consulate, based in Sydney, it has caused consternation both in Australia and Malaysia.

The visit of Anwar Ibrahim was organised by the Festival of Ideas, together with the State Government, Flinders University and Senator Nick Xenophon.

Mr Xenophon said he had no doubt the email was real.

“When I first saw it I thought it was a hoax, but there’s no denial of it,” he said.

“This is not unusual. This is the story of intimidation that Malaysian students face all the time and now they are extending their harassment to Australia.

“That’s unacceptable, and that’s why I am about to send a letter to the Foreign Minister Julie Bishop about this because this is clearly intimidatory.”

Professor Clinton Fernandez, a Canberra-based expert on Malaysia, said ASIO should also be called in to investigate.

“This is clearly an intrusion in Australia’s domestic affairs and if he is employed by the Malaysian Government (Shahrezan) should be deported,” he said.

Mr Xenophon, who described Ibrahim as a beacon of hope for democracy in Malaysia and the entire South East Asian region, was himself deported and banned from Malaysia earlier this year.

The threatening email was greeted with derision on chat sites of the Anwar Ibrahim Club, both for its poor English and for its threatening tone. “We aren’t stupid anymore. Go to hell, government!” says one.

Mr Anwar’s official engagement is to appear in conversation with ABC broadcaster Waleed Aly at Elder Hall on Saturday, October 19 at 11.30am, hosted by Senator Nick Xenophon. Entry is free.

However, separate meetings have been organised in the city tomorrow and at Bradford Lodge, an international student hostel in Rose Park by the Anwar Ibrahim Club and Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia Adelaide on Saturday night.

It was not clear whether the threatening email was referring specifically to one or all of those events.

Pakatan Rakyat has unveiled its election manifesto, entitled ‘Manifesto Rakyat: Pakatan Harapan Rakyat’ (The People’s Manifesto: Pakatan the hope of the people) to capture the attention of 13 million voters by pledging to reduce their financial burden, among other promises.

In tabling the manifesto at a Pakatan convention today, PKR director of strategy Rafizi Ramli said the coalition intends to eliminate monopolies and to raise tax exemption to RM4,000 compared to RM2,500 at present.

The coalition will also, within a day of coming to federal power, abolish the highly controversial rare earths refining project in Pahang, review the petrochemical hub project in Johor, review certain dam projects in Sarawak and also review environmental laws including those on logging.

“We will remove monopolies … we will renegotiate with independent power producers and disband 1Malaysia Development Bhd which serves the agenda of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor,” he said in tabling the first section of the manifesto.

The manifesto is divided into four sections – the people’s economy, people’ welfare, government for the people and fulfilling people’s aspirations.

PKR has launched its new think-tank today with the aim to help them make policies that are “directed towards social justice and a sustainable future”.

In addition, it would also run programmes to educate youths on being more effective in their activism.

The think-tank, dubbed ‘Institut Rakyat’, featured many prominent thinkers in its eight-member advisory panel.

These include former UN Research Institute for Social Development board member and economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram, constitutional law expert Azmi Sharom, Malaysia CEO of the Year 2010 award winner Stanley Thai, and media professor Zaharom Nain.

“They are the ones, with their expert advice, professional experience, intellectualism and scholarly experience, who will give directions to the think tank,” said Institut Rakyat director Wong Hoy Cheong.

“We need evidence-based policies, not policies that are created, and then followed by ‘evidence’ pulled out of thin air to support it.”

Other notable figures in the institute include suspended Bank Islam economist Azrul Azwar Ahmad Tajudin who serves as the institute’s research consultant, and former Maybank CEO Wan Azmi Wan Hamzah who serves as a director.

The institute is chaired by PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and her deputy Syed Husin Ali, a former senator.

Although PKR-linked, Wong said the institute is dependent on donations from well-wishers and does not receive any funding from neither the party nor any government.

‘Offering critical analysis and commentary’

Meanwhile, the PKR de facto leader said the institute would be independent despite its relationship with his party during his keynote speech at the launch event in Subang.

“The paramount role of a policy studies institute is to offer critical analysis and commentary in order to influence them to meet the requirements of good governance.

“The establishment of this institute, being affiliated with PKR, grants the risk of being reduced to a self-serving mouthpiece.

“Hence it is of the greatest consequence that it should be independently run and that it performs the task it is set out to do in its charter, which among others is to advise and critique without fear or favour.

“To remain true to this, it must listen to the voice of the people. It must promote the culture of the ruling political coalition from the government – and I am anticipating an imminent victory, God willing,” Anwar (right) said.

He added that young leaders in the party have long lobbied with the party’s ‘old guard’ for a party-linked think tank just as other parties have done, but with freedom to do its own research.

“This is a rather unique event in my political experience, which is that I have to succumb to the pressure of the youth from time to time to create new institutes and new ideas,” he said while thanking those involved in the lobbying.